intent.
With the yellow dress draped over her arm, Olivia watched me as I stood, held captive by the array of choices, by the pale light that slanted in through the big pane and gave everything a blond look.
“I’ll put this one at the counter. Go on and look around,” she urged, waving me on like a mother to a timid child. I suppose it was plain to anyone that I’d never shopped for myself before. I’d been in big stores in Meridian and in Gordon’s a time or two, but never with the idea that I could have something that I picked out. Something just for me.
“Thanks.” I moved into the center of the store and turned around. There were racks of dresses and skirts and blouses, and even a stand of little hats for ladies. Going-to-church hats, nothing like the big straw picture hat that JoHanna wore. I’d never have the nerve to wear such a hat, but I might wear one of the little felt ones with a sprig of foliage or a pretty feather I could find in the woods. I went by them without touching.
Lined against the wall were dresser-type shelves with drawers where beautiful lace panties resided in cool tissue-paper boxes. I’d looked at them once before when Janelle had dragged me in to shop with her for the Fourth of July picnic dress. She hadn’t bought any of the things either, but she’d made Olivia McAdams open every drawer and lift out each pair of panties, each brassiere, even some of the very expensive silk stockings that floated over my hand like water whipped with foam.
On the same side of the store, but in the back, were clothes for men. The dark suit coats hung along one wall while the pants hung in the center of the floor on big wooden cylinders. There was a round rack filled with belts measured in waist sizes, and another, bigger rack with the only item of men’s apparel with pretty colors, the neckties. There were boxes of suspenders and bow ties, and the wonderful straw hats that Will wore at such a rakish angle.
Olivia was shifting through dresses at another rack. After discarding five or six dresses, she lifted out a green print. “How about this calico? It should fit. We can make the alterations if you need them.” She motioned to the back of the store. “There’s a dressing room back there, behind the curtain.”
I froze, hand reaching for a pretty red and yellow scarf that I couldn’t have but wanted to touch.
“You want to try them on?” Olivia asked, her gaze following mine around the store. “There’s nobody here now but us.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that I would have to take off my clothes in the back of the store. Olivia watched the realization dawn on me and then laughed again, patting my shoulder. “You can take them home and try them on if it makes you feel better. Old man Gordon don’t have to know.”
“No, I’ll try them on here. No point in taking them home and bringing them back.” The truth of the matter was that at home I’d have no one with whom to share the experience of my first store-bought dress. Will’s secret dress was for trying on at home alone. For this dress, I wanted another viewpoint, another female say-so.
Olivia’s grin was spritely. For the first time I realized she wasn’t really a woman. She was large-busted and stout, a fact that made her seem grown. But she wasn’t married, and she helped support her mother’s brood of nine children in the rambling wood house they owned on Canaan Street. Janelle had told me all of this in a whisper the day we’d gone to look for her celebration dress. I’d been afraid Olivia would overhear.
“Take them both,” Olivia directed as she got the yellow dress from the counter. “That way you won’t have to come out and get the other.”
What could it hurt to try on the yellow? I took them and went back to the little closet that had been outfitted with hooks on one side for the dresses. It was hardly big enough to cuss a cat in, but it would do to change clothes.
Peeling out of the gray flannel was
With the yellow dress draped over her arm, Olivia watched me as I stood, held captive by the array of choices, by the pale light that slanted in through the big pane and gave everything a blond look.
“I’ll put this one at the counter. Go on and look around,” she urged, waving me on like a mother to a timid child. I suppose it was plain to anyone that I’d never shopped for myself before. I’d been in big stores in Meridian and in Gordon’s a time or two, but never with the idea that I could have something that I picked out. Something just for me.
“Thanks.” I moved into the center of the store and turned around. There were racks of dresses and skirts and blouses, and even a stand of little hats for ladies. Going-to-church hats, nothing like the big straw picture hat that JoHanna wore. I’d never have the nerve to wear such a hat, but I might wear one of the little felt ones with a sprig of foliage or a pretty feather I could find in the woods. I went by them without touching.
Lined against the wall were dresser-type shelves with drawers where beautiful lace panties resided in cool tissue-paper boxes. I’d looked at them once before when Janelle had dragged me in to shop with her for the Fourth of July picnic dress. She hadn’t bought any of the things either, but she’d made Olivia McAdams open every drawer and lift out each pair of panties, each brassiere, even some of the very expensive silk stockings that floated over my hand like water whipped with foam.
On the same side of the store, but in the back, were clothes for men. The dark suit coats hung along one wall while the pants hung in the center of the floor on big wooden cylinders. There was a round rack filled with belts measured in waist sizes, and another, bigger rack with the only item of men’s apparel with pretty colors, the neckties. There were boxes of suspenders and bow ties, and the wonderful straw hats that Will wore at such a rakish angle.
Olivia was shifting through dresses at another rack. After discarding five or six dresses, she lifted out a green print. “How about this calico? It should fit. We can make the alterations if you need them.” She motioned to the back of the store. “There’s a dressing room back there, behind the curtain.”
I froze, hand reaching for a pretty red and yellow scarf that I couldn’t have but wanted to touch.
“You want to try them on?” Olivia asked, her gaze following mine around the store. “There’s nobody here now but us.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that I would have to take off my clothes in the back of the store. Olivia watched the realization dawn on me and then laughed again, patting my shoulder. “You can take them home and try them on if it makes you feel better. Old man Gordon don’t have to know.”
“No, I’ll try them on here. No point in taking them home and bringing them back.” The truth of the matter was that at home I’d have no one with whom to share the experience of my first store-bought dress. Will’s secret dress was for trying on at home alone. For this dress, I wanted another viewpoint, another female say-so.
Olivia’s grin was spritely. For the first time I realized she wasn’t really a woman. She was large-busted and stout, a fact that made her seem grown. But she wasn’t married, and she helped support her mother’s brood of nine children in the rambling wood house they owned on Canaan Street. Janelle had told me all of this in a whisper the day we’d gone to look for her celebration dress. I’d been afraid Olivia would overhear.
“Take them both,” Olivia directed as she got the yellow dress from the counter. “That way you won’t have to come out and get the other.”
What could it hurt to try on the yellow? I took them and went back to the little closet that had been outfitted with hooks on one side for the dresses. It was hardly big enough to cuss a cat in, but it would do to change clothes.
Peeling out of the gray flannel was
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